Warwick football team hopes to put 0-10 season in its rear view mirror

August 06, 2014|By Dave Johnson, djohnson@dailypress.com

NEWPORT NEWS — Short of the catastrophic, the 2013 football season couldn't have been much worse for Warwick.

Not only did the Raiders finish 0-10 for the first time in school history, they faced turmoil. Things got so bad that the head coach, in his first year on the job, was fired with three games remaining in the season. Those who went through it haven't forgotten, try as they might.

But it's 2014 now, and things are different — at least at the top. Corey Hairston, a career assistant who has worked on six different staffs, has taken over as the Raiders' head coach. And while nobody is predicting a worst-to-first turnaround out of the gate, Hairston's message is simple: Forget the past and move forward.

"We've done that from day one, starting in the weight room back in March until now," Hairston said. "We've put last season behind us and we're building for the future. We're not focused on last year at all.

"They're very enthusiastic and ready to please. They're ready to erase everything that happened last year."

Or, as linebacker Erique Diggs put it: "Last year wasn't very good for us, and I'd like to forget about all that."

Of course, you can't forget it any more than you can erase it. It happened, an 0-10 season that included losses to Gloucester (which had lost 15 in a row) and Menchville (which came in 0-6).

The low point came against the Monarchs, when then-coach Bernard Griffin and linebacker Corey Garrison got into a heated exchange on the sideline. Garrison left the field, and his mother accused Griffin of verbally abusing her son and other players.

Five days later, Griffin was out. He was replaced by former athletic director Michael Cooke, who served as the interim head coach the final three games.

The season came to a merciful ending on Nov. 2. Hairston was hired three months later.

A 45-year-old native of Wintersville, Ohio, Hairston said he has spent 19 years as an assistant coach in the Peninsula District. He had two stints at Denbigh (the first with A.C. Cauthorn, the second with Tracy Harrod), two with Heritage (Reggie Garrett then John Quillen), and one each with Warwick (Juan Jackson) and Menchville (Glenn Tidwell).

He's been a special education teacher at Warwick since '05. He knows the place.

"It's nothing new for me," Diggs said. "I already know what he wants from everybody."

Place-kicker Grayson Hubbard, one of the few bright spots last year with six field goals, already has seen a difference in workouts.

"I feel it's a very positive change," he said. "A lot of productive things have been going on. We don't let a day go by without winning the day. That's the goal with this team. We're just making every day count.

"We really just have to let (last season) go. We've got a good set of coaches now and I know they'll do the right thing for all of us."

Hairston said he had 56 players, varsity and JV, come out for the first day of practice Monday morning. He's hoping for more, and he'll need it.

Hubbard, an All-PenSouth Conference pick, Diggs and end Chris Young are the team's most experienced players. Young is the only returnee who scored a touchdown last season. Still, Hairston says he likes the talent level.

"Warwick has always had good athletes, and that will continue," he said. "We've had a rise in the kids who didn't play last year (but) are now interested. We've had an influx of kids who are pretty decent athletes."

Though nobody wants to go winless, it doesn't have to be a program killer. In 2010, Heritage finished 0-10 and was outscored 411-32. Only three years later, the Hurricanes went 12-2 and made the 4A state semifinals.

Another example is Denbigh, which improved from 0-10 in 2011 to 8-4 in a two-year span. Woodside had a similar turnaround — 0-10 in 2000, 8-2 in '02.

Hairston knows all this. But he's not using them as models.

"We talk about Warwick," he said. "We're bringing back the tradition Warwick used to have. The tradition of hard work, discipline, getting after it, conditioning, hitting the weights hard. Just taking pride back, not just in football but in the school."